Media strategy and messaging
Positioning statement, narrative development, and a messaging framework your spokespeople can repeat under pressure.
The media relations agency that names your target outlets before you pay
We build the media list, write the pitch, and work named journalists on their beat until your story runs. Outlets, placement targets, and dates are agreed before kickoff, behind a 100% guarantee: you get the agreed results or your money back.
One threada named reporter, on their beat
The stakes
What twelve quiet months actually cost you
Most companies shopping for a media relations agency have already paid for silence once. An internal hire whose contact list ran dry in month two. A retainer that produced a slide about outreach volume and one trade mention. A freelancer who mailed the same pitch to 300 addresses and collected four bounces.
The bill for that never lands in the PR budget. It lands somewhere else. A reporter writes the category piece and quotes two rivals. An analyst builds the market map without you on it.
A buyer asks ChatGPT who the serious companies in your space are and gets an answer assembled from your own website, because no publication has ever described you. Your commercial pages sit on page two because nothing credible points at them. None of it is loud. All of it is expensive.
The discipline
What a media relations agency does, and where it stops being general PR
Media relations is the discipline inside public relations that deals directly with journalists, editors, reporters, and producers. Everything else in PR aims at an audience. This part aims at the people who decide what that audience reads.
| Criteria | Media relations | Wider public relations | Advertising |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who you persuade | Journalists, editors, producers | Customers, staff, investors, regulators | The platform selling the space |
| What you control | Your pitch, your facts, your access | Message, channels, timing | Everything |
| The price of entry | A story an editor can defend | Program budget | Media spend, every month |
| What you get | A trusted third party vouching for you | Reputation built over years | Attention you rent |
| What happens later | Coverage keeps ranking and getting cited | Compounding trust | It stops when the card does |
That last row is the whole argument for earned media. A paid impression expires. A feature in a publication your buyers respect keeps getting read, linked, and cited for years.
The work
The media relations services we run
Every scope starts from three things: the publications your buyers name without prompting, the reporters already covering your category, and the one story you can defend under questioning. Here it is as a day on the desk.
Media list building and journalist research
Named reporters on their beat with the angle each one actually takes, not a database export dressed up as a list.
Story development and pitch creation
Angles, exclusives, embargoes, and original data when the news needs help being news.
Press materials
Press releases, press kits, boilerplate, executive bios, quote banks, and briefing documents written to AP style.
Outreach and follow up
Pitching on a set cadence, with follow up worked by hand. One send to a bought list is not outreach.
Reactive commentary and newsjacking
Your experts quoted inside stories that are being written today, while the cycle is still open.
Interview coordination and media training
Prep documents, hostile question rehearsal, and spokesperson training before anyone goes on record.
Thought leadership placement
Bylines, op eds, podcast guest spots, broadcast segments, award submissions, and speaking opportunities.
Media monitoring and coverage reporting
Placements against target, sentiment, message pull through, share of voice, referring domains, and branded search movement.
Full menu sits on public relations services. Reputation defense runs through crisis PR, and campaigns built for links and rankings through digital PR.
The beats
Media relations services built per industry, not per template
A fintech beat reporter wants filings, numbers, and an executive who will go on record. A consumer editor wants a product, an image, and a season. A healthcare desk wants a claim you can source. We keep separate media lists, pitch formats, and outreach calendars by sector.
The process
How the first 90 days run
WK 01 · Austin
The scope goes in writing
Media audit, messaging framework, target media list with journalists named, plus the placement targets, outlet tiers, and dates we commit to. You sign a commitment, not a statement of intent.
WK 02 · the desks
Pitching starts
Real emails to real beats, plus reactive commentary pushed into live stories the same day they break.
DAY 30 to 45 · the trades
First coverage
Trade and business press usually land first. Interviews get booked, prepped, and attended by someone senior on our side.
DAY 90 · the review
The honest review
National desks worked, bylines placed, and a review against the numbers you signed, not the effort we can evidence.
As a pace marker, Forbes clients usually get a first opportunity inside 4 to 8 weeks.
AI answers
Coverage is what AI engines quote back
None of the agencies ranking for this term mention this, so here it is. When a buyer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews who the credible companies in your category are, the answer gets assembled from sources those systems can verify. Editorial coverage is the strongest input available, and no vendor manufactures it.
That makes media relations a search problem as well as a press problem. We run entity first content, structured data, and citation engineering alongside the pitching, in one team, so a placement earns you a reader this week and a citation for years after. More at AI SEO and SEO and GEO.
Why AceIt
Why hire AceIt as your media relations agency
Ask everyone on your shortlist what happens to your money if the coverage never lands. Almost none of them have an answer, and the ones that do will start talking about effort.
So we put the risk where it belongs, on the agency. Placement targets, outlet tiers, timelines, and deliverables are agreed before kickoff, and if we do not deliver what we committed to, on the timeline we committed to, you get your money back. We guarantee the work and the agreed deliverables rather than promising that one named journalist says yes, because nobody ethical sells you another person's decision. That line is what separates a real refund from a marketing promise.
Three more answers to get before you sign. Senior people run your account, so no junior manager learns your sector on your budget. Replies land in 1 to 2 hours, which matters the day a reporter gives you until 4pm. And PR, SEO and GEO, and web sit in one team out of Austin, so coverage and rankings stop being two separate arguments with two separate invoices.
Receipts
Proof with numbers attached
1M+Brand impressions the pitching we did for Vezbi, a community super app, carried its U.S. expansion past on organic PR alone
50+Forbes features placed across 12+ industries
4,200+Visits one feature produced for a client anonymized under NDA, with branded search up 38% and 12 secondary pickups
DA 94Authority of the backlink that same feature earned
Client coverage has run in Forbes, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, USA Today Network, Wired, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fast Company, Adweek, and Daily Mail. More at Vezbi and case studies.
The number
What media relations services cost
Almost nobody in this market publishes a number. The one agency ranking here that shows package tiers still keeps the dollar figures behind a call. Ours are on the site.
We price placements individually instead of billing for a month of effort, so you approve the outlet, the position, and the price before money moves. Every price is on the pricing page, and Forbes campaigns are scoped and priced in writing before kickoff.
Programs pairing earned media with search run mid five figures to six figures annually against a 12 month roadmap. Project, retainer, and performance oriented models are all available, and scope and price are settled on the strategy call rather than three weeks after it.
The four question filterif you got here from a directory comparing two thousand agencies
The honest filter
Who this fits, and who it does not
On the listit fits
It fits companies with something to say and nobody to say it to:
- Funded startups making a first announcement
- B2B firms whose buyers read the trade press for months before taking a call
- Established brands whose search results have not kept up with the business
- In house marketing leads who need journalist relationships they cannot build in a quarter
- If organic visibility is part of the same problem, pair it with organic SEO
Not this deskwe say so on the call
- Anyone who wants a named publication promised by Friday
- Anyone buying purely on the lowest monthly rate
- Anyone whose only news is that the company exists
Coverage needs a story. We will say that on the call rather than bill you for six months to reach the same conclusion.
Questions
Asked before every media relations engagement
Anything else, email [email protected] and it comes back in 1 to 2 hours.
A media relations agency earns coverage by building and working relationships with journalists on your behalf. The work covers media strategy and messaging, media list building, story development, pitching and follow up, press materials, interview coordination and media training, reactive commentary, and reporting on placements, sentiment, and share of voice. The output is third party coverage, not advertising you paid a platform to run.
Media relations is one part of public relations. PR manages every relationship that shapes your reputation, including customers, employees, investors, regulators, and communities. Media relations handles the press specifically: the pitching, the reporters, the interviews, the coverage. Every media relations program is PR. Most PR programs contain far more than media relations, from internal comms to crisis planning to public affairs.
Most agencies in this market never publish a figure and quote after a discovery call. We price placements individually so you approve the outlet and the price before spending anything. Forbes campaigns are scoped and priced in writing before kickoff, and programs combining earned media with search run mid five figures to six figures annually. Project, retainer, and performance oriented models are available, all covered by the money back guarantee. See pricing.
First coverage typically lands within 30 to 45 days, usually in trade or business press, and reactive commentary can appear the same week a story breaks. Most Forbes clients see a first opportunity within 4 to 8 weeks. The compounding effects on branded search, organic visibility, and AI citations take 6 to 12 months, so we agree interim milestones in writing rather than asking you to wait and hope.
Judge four things you can verify before signing. Who personally writes and sends the pitches, and how senior they are. How quickly the agency replies while you are still a prospect. Whether outlet tiers, placement targets, and dates go in writing before kickoff. And what happens to your fee if those targets are missed. Our answer to the last one is a full refund.
Small businesses need coverage when a third party saying you are credible changes a buying decision, which is most B2B, regulated, and considered purchase categories. If you sell on price to people who never research you first, spend elsewhere. If your buyers google you, read trade titles, or ask an AI assistant for recommendations, earned coverage is the cheapest lasting way to be found there.
Next step
See the media list before you spend a dollar
Two things get us started: your domain, and the two competitors who keep getting quoted instead of you. You will get the story angles worth building, the journalists we would take them to by name, the week we expect your first placement, and the numbers we would sign. Every engagement carries a 100% guarantee: you get the agreed results or your money back.
Every engagement carries a 100% guarantee: you get the agreed results or your money back